Kevin Meenan

Not to diss 2009 or jinx 2011, but this was an unusually exciting and solid year for our bustling little music scene. As the notoriously NYC-biased Pitchfork recently put it, our fair city is "slowly threatening to eclipse Brooklyn in the ranks of regional talent." Hey-yo! Listed below are seven full length releases (sorry, Girls) from the year that particularly stood out to us, along with five additional LPs too good not to mention.